One of Southeast Asia's most well-known female entrepreneurs is to step down from her operational roles at Grab, the ride-hailing giant she helped found more than a decade ago.

The amount of time people spent watching cable and broadcast channels has fallen for the first time to

Astronomers have found a planetary system with six different worlds that orbit in a strange rhythm. The set of planets move around their star in a rhythmic beat, scientists say, staying synchronised in a kind of dance. The findings could help shed more light on how planets form and evolve, the researchers say. The star is smaller, and slightly dimmer than the Sun, and the six “sub-Neptunes” - possibly smaller versions of Neptune in our solar system - move in a cyclic rhythm. According to the experts, this orbital waltz repeats itself so precisely it can be readily set to music. The star, HD110067, is 100 light-years away in the northern constellation of Coma Berenices, and had perplexed researchers for years. Now scientists, including those at the University of Warwick, have revealed the true architecture of this unusual system using Nasa and European Space Agency (Esa) spacecraft. The analysis was led by University of Chicago scientist Dr Rafael Luque, who said: “This discovery is going to become a benchmark system to study how sub-Neptunes, the most common type of planets outside of the solar system, form, evolve, what are they made of, and if they possess the right conditions to support the existence of liquid water in their surfaces.” The first indication of planets orbiting the strange star system came in 2020, when Nasa’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (Tess) detected dips in the star’s brightness which suggested planets were passing in between the star and the spacecraft. A preliminary analysis revealed two possible planets - one with a year (the length of time it takes to complete one orbit around the star) of 5.64 days, and another with an unknown period at the time. Two years later, Tess observed the same star again, and analysis ruled out the original interpretation but presented two additional possible planets. Much was still unknown about the planetary system, until scientists across the world - including those at the University of Warwick - joined the investigation. They used data from Esa’s Characterising Exoplanet Satellite (Cheops), hoping to determine the orbital periods of these faraway planets. While multi-planet systems are common in the Milky Way, those in a tight gravitational formation known as “resonance” are observed by astronomers far less often. In this case, the planet closest to the star makes three orbits for every two of the next planet out - called a 3/2 resonance - a pattern that is repeated among the four closest planets. Among the outermost planets, a pattern of four orbits for every three of the next planet out (a 4/3 resonance) is repeated twice. Thomas Wilson, from the Department of Physics at the University of Warwick, said: “By establishing this pattern of planet orbits, we were able to predict other orbits of planets we hadn’t yet detected. “From this we lined up previously unexplained dips in starlight observed by Cheops and discovered three additional planets with longer orbits. This was only possible with the crucial Cheops data.” Researchers say the planets - two to three times the size of Earth - are likely to have been performing this same rhythmic dance since the system formed billions of years ago. Dr Luque said: “We think only about 1% of all systems stay in resonance, and even fewer show a chain of planets in such configuration.” Experts say orbitally resonant systems are extremely important to find because they tell astronomers about the formation and subsequent evolution of the planetary system. Planets around stars tend to form in resonance but can easily have their orbits thrown around. For example, a very massive planet, a close encounter with a passing star, or a giant impact event can all disrupt the careful balance. Therefore, multi-planet systems preserving their resonance are rare. HD110067 is the brightest known system with four or more planets. Since those planets are all sub-Neptune-sized with likely larger atmospheres, it makes them ideal candidates for studying using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and the Esa’s future Ariel telescope. Mr Wilson added: “All of these planets have large atmospheres - similar to Uranus or Neptune - which makes them perfect for observation with JWST. “It would be fascinating to test if these planets are rocky like Earth or Venus but with larger atmospheres - solid surfaces potentially with water. “However, they are all much hotter than Earth - 170C to 530C - which would make it very difficult for life to exist.” Hannah Osborne, a PhD student at UCL’s Mullard Space Science Laboratory and a co-author of the study, said: “The system itself is a key discovery for exoplanet science: because all six planets are in a resonant chain we know that the architecture of the system can’t have changed much since its formation, so by studying HD110067 we get a rare window into the past to understand how these types of systems may have formed and evolved.” The findings are published in the Nature journal. Additional reporting by Press Association Read More Astronomers find unprecedented ‘disc’ around distant planet Astronomers discover new six-planet system Scientists have cooked ‘alien haze’ that could help find life Astronomers find unprecedented ‘disc’ around distant planet Astronomers discover new six-planet system Scientists have cooked ‘alien haze’ that could help find life

A hotly anticipated IPO for a company that designs chips for 99% of the world's smartphones is just around the corner, after it filed paperwork Monday to go public.

A researcher has figured out that the Earth’s first continent was formed 3bn years ago, in a new paper that sheds fresh light on the early stages of the planet’s life. Jane Greaves, an astronomy professor in the School of Physics and Astronomy at Cardiff University in Wales, was examining continent formation on distant stars and planets. It is thought that exoplanets with continents that formed in a similar way to Earth’s are more likely to be habitable, and perhaps even contain alien life. In the process, she calculated when several distant planets’ continents were born, as well as those a little closer to home. Continents on Earth sit on top of the planet’s hot, viscous mantle. Heat from the inner core stops the mantle from solidifying. The reason the core is hot is because it contains radioactive elements that came from neutron star collisions billions of years ago such as forms of Uranium, Thorium and Potassium. By analysing how many materials like this are present on Earth and on other planets, we are also able to estimate when the continents formed. On Earth, that was about 9.5 billion years since the beginning of the universe. Meanwhile, in Greaves' sample, the first continents appeared 2bn years before Earth’s on the exoplanets of younger, so-called thin disk stars. Older, thick disk stars analysed in her work produced rocky planets with continents that appeared even earlier: about 4 to 5bn years before Earth’s. “The outlook seems very promising for finding rocky exoplanets with continents, given that nearby Sun-like stars have already produced a few candidate hosts,” she wrote. The study, “When were the First Exocontinents?” is published in Research Notes of the American Astronomical SocietySign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

The 2017 video game ‘Home Sweet Home’ is being adapted into a film by directing duo Kiesl and Hacker.

The new Fortnite Item Shop changes in update v26.20 now offer an in-shop menu to quickly find specific cosmetics, like the My Hero Academia Bundle.

The US Federal Trade Commission has sued to stop Microsoft buying Call of Duty developer Activision Blizzard. It is just the latest problem for the deal, which has already been blocked by UK regulators. If completed, it will become one of the largest takeovers ever – but has faced scrutiny from regulators around the world, who argue that it might cause problems for the gaming market. The FTC's Monday filing in a federal court in San Francisco seeks a restraining order and injunction to stop Microsoft's $69 billion purchase of the California gaming company behind hit franchises such as Call of Duty and World of Warcraft. Microsoft, maker of the Xbox game system, has been struggling to win worldwide approval for the deal with just over a month before the deadline to close it, according to the contract it signed with Activision. “We welcome the opportunity to present our case in federal court," said a statement Monday from Brad Smith, Microsoft's vice chair and president. "We believe accelerating the legal process in the U.S will ultimately bring more choice and competition to the market.” The FTC already took Microsoft to court to block the merger, but that was before the U.S. agency's in-house judge in a trial set to start on Aug. 2. That administrative process doesn't preclude the parties from closing the deal. The contract between Microsoft and Activision required the deal to close by July 18, but the FTC's latest action seeks to stop that from happening. “Microsoft and Activision Blizzard have represented in the past that they cannot close their deal due to antitrust reviews of the transaction in other jurisdictions," the FTC said in a statement Monday. "But Microsoft and Activision have not provided assurances that they will maintain that position. In light of that, and public reporting that Microsoft and Activision Blizzard are considering closing their deal imminently, we have filed a request for a temporary restraining order to prevent them from closing while review continues.” Microsoft's other main obstacle is in the United Kingdom, where antitrust regulators have also taken action to block the acquisition. The all-cash deal announced in January 2022 has been scrutinized by regulators around the world over fears that it would give Microsoft and its Xbox console control of Activision's hit franchises and give it an unfair boost in the emerging business of cloud-based game subscriptions. It could be the priciest tech industry merger in history. Fierce opposition has been driven by rival Sony, which makes the PlayStation gaming system. Microsoft sought to counter the resistance by striking a deal with Nintendo to license Activision titles like Call of Duty for 10 years and offering the same to Sony if the deal went ahead. European regulators representing the 27-nation bloc approved the deal last month on condition that Microsoft make some promises meant to boost competition in the cloud-based gaming market. A number of other countries, including China, Japan, Brazil and South Korea, have also approved it. But the blockbuster deal has remained in jeopardy because of the surprise April decision by the U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority and the ongoing case in the U.S. Microsoft in late May filed an appeal of the British regulator's decision and has also voiced strong public opposition directed at top government officials. U.S.-based consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, an opponent of the deal, welcomed the FTC's move Monday. “Although the agency has already used its authority to block the merger through administrative proceedings, Microsoft is pushing to culminate the purchase of Activision before the agency can finish its process," said a statement from Public Citizen's competition policy advocate Matt Kent. ""By filing in federal court to enjoin the transaction, the FTC is showing that it won’t back down in the face of Microsoft’s escalatory tactics.” Additional reporting by Associated Press

From Kelpie to Krampus, get to know these boogeymen (and boogeywomen) from different countries.

Twitter is blocking people from viewing tweets and profiles on its website unless they are signed in to

The UK government on Thursday hailed a decision by ChatGPT creator OpenAI to open its first office outside the...

Microsoft has rolled out its communities feature on Teams for Windows 11. The Discord-like feature,